August 4, 2005
Dear Everyone:
Things certainly have been heating up at work lately. While training people in how to use the document management system has been in “a valley”, other projects have suddenly turned into “peaks”. The biggest one has to do with a woman that I’ve been working with quite closely for the past year or so. A contractor for five years, she finally got hired by the Company as a full-time employee. For this, we are all happy for her.
However. She wasn’t hired by the operating company that we work for. She was hired by the operating company that we worked for up until May 1st. We’ve made jokes about how long it took the “old” company to realize, once she was gone, that she was one of their best workers. In any case, she won’t be working with me on the document management system.
Which means I just “inherited” the job she was doing up until a couple of weeks ago. So I’m playing catch-up to find out just what she did and how I’m going to do it from now on. Since she is much more technical than I am, there’s a bit of a learning curve to get past.
In addition to that, I’ve just been given two more projects that have to do with the document management system. One has to do with identifying the owners of certain documents and convincing them to make a small change in some information about the documents. This amounts to less than 200 documents, so I’m hopeful that it won’t take too long.
The second is much b-i-g-g-e-r: Remember that “old” operating company that we worked for up until May 1st? When they were running the document management system, they had as many electronic cabinets as they wanted. Dozens in fact. Now that they don’t “own” the system anymore, they’ve discovered just how expensive those cabinets can be. So, big project to create a “super cabinet” for the entire company.
This means a total rewrite of all the security groups, the control groups that determine who can access what. Lots of technical issues to be examined and implemented. And I’m the “Project Manager”. Did I mention they want it all done by the end of September? Did I mention that I will have about three weeks of vacation between now and the end of September?
There are some other “projects” that may turn out to be non-starters. Sometimes when people ask us for help with their records, all it takes is a phone call, a few emails, and a sample file structure and it turns out that’s all they needed. Then there’s another group that looked like a large scanning-to-document-management-system project. Turns out it’s three people with a plan to scan over 100,000 documents, using the Multiple Function Device (MFD) in the hallway, in their “spare time”.
At any rate, I’m a busy little bee these days.
Now about the movie, The Island. “Jeannie” says this is a movie to see and see it on a big screen. Check your logic at the door, and crank your credulity-meter as high as it can go. Then sit back and enjoy the ride. Ewan McGregor has a dual role. In fact, more than half the cast have dual roles; they just don’t know it. Lincoln Six Echo (McGregor) lives in a futuristic utopia of sorts. Like everyone around him, he works in one of a series of buildings.
Through the windows, they can see the world around
them, but it’s not safe for them to go outside.
The world has been contaminated.
The only uncontaminated place is “The Island”.
Every so often, there is a random lottery and one lucky winner
gets to go to the
What follows is lots of chase scenes. Even “Jeannie” was impressed. It can’t be that easy to make a Mack truck flip tail-over-teakettle like that. Many, many stunt people are employed in this movie. One strange thing is the presence of actor Michael Clarke Duncan. An Academy Award nominee for his performance in The Green Mile, Duncan is too big an actor to show up in only two scenes and one billboard. Methinks much of his work landed on the cutting room floor.
In any case, definitely worth a couple of hours in a dark, air-conditioned theater on a summer weekend. Give it a try.
Love, as always,
Pete
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